Furtwangen, July 30, 2009 – Last year, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) registered 1,800 successful attempts by hackers to crack the i-TAN procedure and gain access to users’ account data.
This represents an overall increase in cybercrime of over 60 percent in the past seven years.
The HBCI (Homebanking Computer Interface) procedure with chip card is currently considered the most secure solution in the fight against phishing, pharming or Trojans.
However, despite the high security standard, which is guaranteed by a special electronic signature procedure with complex encryption, the new technology has not yet become established across the board.
According to the latest online study, only around a third of respondents are familiar with the procedure and only six percent of them use the HBCI functions for their financial transactions via the Internet.
Reiner SCT, Star Finanz and the GeldKarte initiative are therefore jointly launching the “Security offensive 2009” campaign in order to make a contribution to greater security in online banking in addition to their products.
On the website www.sicherheitsoffensive2009.de, the initiators provide information about possible attack scenarios on the Internet, effective protective measures and the advantages of HBCI with chip card.
The campaign also offers discounted security packages consisting of the latest version of the StarMoney 7.0 online banking software and the cyberJack® secoder and cyberJack® e-com plus chip card readers.
Due to its ease of use, authentication with PIN and TAN is one of the best-known and most popular security methods in online banking: according to the (N)Onliner-Atlas study, the i-TAN procedure was the most widely used system in 2008, with 40 percent of users using it.
The numbered TANs make it somewhat more difficult for fraudsters to intercept account data, but unfortunately it cannot be prevented.
In the fight against attacks by hackers and Trojans, banks are therefore constantly working on ways to further optimize their existing banking systems.
The HBCI procedure is a state-of-the-art multi-banking standard that makes online banking more secure and convenient than ever before.
With the help of sophisticated encryption techniques, the user’s access data is doubly protected, making it impossible for fraudsters to steal TANs.
The data is evaluated via Secoder-certified chip card readers such as the cyberJack® models and cannot be accessed by hackers.
Additional security is guaranteed by the display of the transaction on the device display with separate verification by the user.
Security has its price – and it is now going down
Although the processing of financial transactions on the Internet using chip card readers in accordance with the Secoder standard is described by independent experts as “exemplary”, only six percent of online bankers use the procedure.
Two thirds of respondents to the (N)Onliner Study 2009 stated that they would not accept any additional costs for security in online banking.
However, the situation with security applications in online banking is similar to that in other industry sectors.
Carsten Sommer, Managing Director of Reiner SCT, explains: “In the car industry, customers also have to pay extra for optimum protection in the form of additional airbags and so on. However, since every bank customer wants their account management at a discount price, free additional packages for the most secure form of online banking are unfortunately no longer an option today.”
Bernd Wittkamp, Managing Director of Star Finanz GmbH, adds: “The best protection against hacker attacks can only be achieved through the interaction of professional hardware and software – an investment that is always worthwhile in times of increased attacks.”
To support security-conscious online bankers, Reiner SCT and Star Finanz are offering a discounted product package as part of the security campaign, which includes the online banking software StarMoney 7.0 and the chip card readers cyberJack® secoder and cyberJack® e-com plus.
The bundle with the cyberJack® secoder costs just 89 euros instead of 114 euros, while the offer with the cyberJack® e-com plus offers a price advantage of almost 20 percent (140 instead of 174 euros).
About the 2009 security offensive
The aim of the 2009 security offensive is to raise awareness of possible attack scenarios by cyber criminals and to present effective protective measures against unauthorized access.
At www.sicherheitsoffensive2009.de, interested parties can obtain tips against phishing, pharming and Trojans as well as more detailed information on the advantages and areas of application of online banking with HBCI/FinTS.
The campaign is a joint project of Reiner SCT, Star Finanz and the GeldKarte initiative.
In addition, Reiner SCT’s website www.hbci-finder.de offers the opportunity to research credit institutions that actively support and offer the HBCI procedure. The text comprises approx. 4,855 characters.
